Friday, December 12, 2014

Racism Alone? – Reflections on the Current National Divide

When I heard the decision not to indict the killers of Eric
Garner, my outraged response was, “here we go again!”If the Michael Brown case lacked moral clarity, the senseless tragedy of the Eric Garner
case was much more clear.No matter what
the circumstances were, here were two more African American men added to the
list of senseless killings, arousing strong reactions nationally and
internationally.

Some claim that these killings demonstrate the existence of
racist structures that permeate our society.Others claim that these killings resulted from criminal behavior or “a
lack of personal responsibility.”While
both positions point to contributing factors, they both continue to ignore the
elephant in the room, namely culture
– a factor that dwarfs the previous two.

We have made astounding progress against racism thanks to
the Civil Rights and Black Consciousness movements.Yet in the ’hood, conditions have not
improved accordingly.Today, there is a growing
culture of dysfunctionality eating
away not just at the ‘hood, but at our larger society.It is often government funded through well
meaning but mismanaged subsistence programs.It is having devastating effects across cultures, yet is felt most
profoundly in the ’hood.It
is a culture derived from the old “redneck” South – a culture nurtured by
structures of oppression and one that wears down initiative and personal
responsibility – whose value system elevates and encourages anti-achieverism,
fatherlessness, dependency, helplessness, hopelessness, self-sabotaging/self-destructive
behavior, fratricide, etc., and in extreme cases, nihilism.

What we are witnessing today is more a cultural divide than
a racial one.I am by no means denying
the reality of the remaining vestiges of racism; I am saying that racism by
itself cannot fully account for the frustration of those who feel the sting of
non-acceptance in, and hostility from, the larger society.This is because valued behavior in the
culture of dysfunctionality is often devalued in the culture of functionality,
and vice-versa.

A major dogma of today’s politically correct milieu is, “Value
systems and cultures are equally valid; therefore, thou shalt not evaluate them
lest ye become guilty of ‘blaming the victim.’” Thus, without the cultural
factor, the entire problem of marginalization is attributed only to racism.This partly explains, perhaps, why the overwhelming majority of senseless Black on Black murders across the country do not arouse the same
intensity of anger.It does not fit the narrative
of ‘sola racisma’ (racism alone),
leaving us with no adequate basis for rallying widespread outrage and protest.

Dimensions

Figure 1: The National Cultural Divide

The vast majority of African Americans are not bound by the culture of dysfunctionality. Yet this distorted culture has gained a dominant influence among African Americans, aided largely by the mass media. However, the functional vs. dysfunctional is not the only cultural divide. There is also another dimension, namely, the dominant vs. subdominant (Figure 1).

Most African Americans have experienced some form of
racism.There are few of us who haven’t
suffered or witnessed some form of overbearing police misconduct by White and
non-White officers.Because the
subdominant culture tends to experience more oppression than the dominant
culture, there tend to be divergent views of police.Thus, while most in the dominant culture see
recent excessive police use of force from the perspective of the rule of law,
many in the subdominant culture feel these incidents as paradigms of injustice
and oppression.

Furthermore, from the perspective of the culture of
dysfunctionality, it is easier to see police as an ‘occupation force.’From the perspective of the culture of
functionality, police tend to be seen as “upholders of law and order.”

Hence, our current national crisis has uncovered an
unfortunate point of contact between members of the subdominant culture and
those trapped in the culture of dysfunctionality – a suspicion of police.

In the wake of recent events, there is much talk of healing
and reconciliation.Unfortunately, as
time passes there is a diminishing possibility for this.Why?Because at the same time, our society is dumping its historic core
values all in the name of “inclusiveness” and “multiculturalism.”Many of us have forgotten that appealing to
these essentially biblical core values made the Civil Rights Movement
possible.We are increasingly losing the
basis for building a consensus to distinguish right from wrong, and justice
from injustice.

If this current trend
prevails, we will degenerate into a culturally balkanized society and everyone
will lose.

Paradigms

Oppression is sin plus power – the imposition of sin or its
consequences on others with less power. This
causes the oppressed to push back.As
they resist oppression, they tend to overlook their own sin, and the oppression
alone becomes the paradigm for all their problems.

Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun.” A similar scenario of national crisis happened
to the people of Jerusalem 140 years before the time of Nehemiah. Recall that when the Israelites returned from
70 years of Babylonian captivity, they had high hopes. Opposition to rebuilding the temple delayed
its completion. However, as they began
to rebuild the city wall, the opposition succeeded in halting its construction
and destroying the work that was completed.
Because their oppressors continued to thwart all attempts to rebuild the
wall and restore the gates, the people of Jerusalem continued to be vulnerable
and helpless. This had a devastating
effect on the Israelites. As a result,
they lost their vision and sense of dignity; their culture degenerated into chaos as they slipped
into apathy, self-sabotaging behavior and self-destructive life-styles.

If you asked any Jerusalem resident to describe their
predicament, they would reply, “The walls are broken down and the gates are
burned with fire.”They would identify Sanballat
and Tobiah as their oppressors.While
this paradigm of oppression was a
statement of truth, it overlooked the Jew on Jew exploitation in Jerusalem,
where the wealthy elite exploited the non-elite through tax manipulation and
human trafficking.

For African Americans
caught in the culture of dysfunctionality, the comparable paradigm of
oppression has been racism.

Rethink

The ongoing unrest about Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others is a cry
for a new and overdue movement. Fifty-plus
years after the Civil Rights and Black Consciousness movements, there still
remain unresolved problems and issues.What many protesters don’t understand is that the movement for which
they foment will not be realized based on old worn out paradigms and
slogans.The new movement will need a new
paradigm that will revolutionize our outlook, offer symbols with moral clarity,
and promote rally cries that will articulate the essence of both.

For example, the Civil Rights Movement weaponized the
theology of suffering that had been with us from the beginning of our American
experience.The idea of theology as a
weapon caused a major paradigm shift in our outlook.Thus for the first time in the civil rights
struggle, we knew we could actually
effect change.Hence, the rally cry, “We
shall overcome” came forth and the Civil Rights Movement was born, making many gains before it degenerated into the civil
rights industry.

The emergence of Black consciousness as a movement also
resulted from a paradigm shift and a rally cry.As gains in civil rights advanced, we began to experience more fully
another dimension of our American ordeal.Up to this point assimilation into the dominant culture was seen as key
to our success.This was the general
consensus.However, as we experienced
greater degrees of success, we began to more fully experience cultural
dissonance in the area of aesthetics.Conformity to a Euro-centric standard of beauty was absurd for most of
us.This phenomenon had moral clarity and
gave rise to the rally cry, “Black is beautiful.”Unfortunately, the rising dominance of the
culture of dysfunctionality has pushed us toward another refrain – ‘Black is
ghetto.’

The politically charged left and right wing approaches to
the current crisis are woefully inadequate.They ignore the cultural factor because they lack a robust basis for
analysis and resolution.Biblical wisdom
still stands as the source for true understanding.It empowered the Civil Rights Movement and
undergirds our sense of human dignity and worth as it affirms that we are in
the image of God – the foundation for “Black is beautiful.”

The paradigm shift we need today involves recognition of the
cultural factor in our current difficulties; we need to rethink what it means
to be African American.

Revolution

There is no such thing as a value system that accepts all
values.Likewise, there is no such thing
as a successful movement that embraces all behaviors.Just as the early advocates of “Blackness”
identified assimilation into the dominant ‘White’ culture as ‘anti-Black,’ we
must identify the culture of dysfunctionality and the resulting behaviors as
counterproductive.However, it is not
enough just to identify the crippling value system of this culture, we must
seek to free our young men from its grip – a nexus that continues to set them
up to be devoured by the jaws of the rapacious “prison industrial complex.”

Rising above this cultural morass will require an intense and gutsy form of discipleship.It must first awaken our young men to the
fact that they are being used as canon fodder by those who profiteer from the culture of dysfunctionality, namely, drug cartels, unscrupulous
politicians, race hustlers and poverty pimps, etc.Second, it must not only empower them from
sinfulness toward righteousness, but from dysfunctionality towards
functionality and from foolishness toward wisdom.

This partly explains what
happened in Jerusalem under the guidance of Nehemiah when he shrewdly marshaled
the resources at his disposal to empower the people to rebuild the city wall
and gates. With biblical wisdom, he led them
to rise above their cultural crisis through a Godly paradigm shift; Jew on Jew
exploitation was ended, the affected families were restored, and the people regained
their vision and sense of dignity.

If
done right, the contemporary approach to discipleship will influence more than individuals
and families. It will also impact the
culture itself through the use of powerful art forms like ‘spoken word,’ video,
hip-hop, blogging, music and drama, to name a few.

This task is fraught with opportunity and danger for the
disciple-maker, but it must be done.
With God’s help, it can be done.

It is time for a new and different type of liberation
movement – a cultural revolution informed by Nehemiah,

5 comments:

I'm not sure if calling for a new form of discipleship and focusing our attention on individuals and families is enough here. For there are sources of oppression which are not mentioned here but work as predominant systems in our society. And as Christians, it is our task to call those systems, and those who create or maintain them, to task while we also call individuals to repent. And one of the systems that bears great responsibility for not only maintaining the plight of the marginalized, but adding more people to that group is our Neoliberal form of Capitalism. So we should consider whether the economic classism that results from our current form of Capitalism is, like our systemic racism, keeping people disenfranchised and oppressed.

In addition, it seems that we need to appeal to nonChristians to build a large enough movement that can challenge the systems that practice oppression. So while a new form of discipleship can be helpful, it is not enough by itself.

Thanks for this post Carl. I found it insightful to not point merely at racism and not merely at the culture of dysfunctionality, but to both and say our new form of discipleship means seeking to change the system while also acknowledging our work on the hearts and families of those in the 'hood. This helped me gain better clarity of the situation.

Been a minute since your post, but the words still ring through. I now have a better understanding of what I am seeing an unable to articulate in both thought and words. Your view of the culture, dominant and subdominant, functionality and dysfunctionality helps to provide more background to the larger scope. Thanks for not just making it one sided when all have a role to play. Peace.

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